


Shaken Not Stirred

by sharkie335



Category: The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Christmas, Community: wishlist_fic, Gen, Humor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-26
Updated: 2012-12-26
Packaged: 2017-11-22 12:22:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,433
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/609772
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sharkie335/pseuds/sharkie335
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Steve wants a team Christmas.  Tony and Bruce have their own idea of how to achieve that.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Shaken Not Stirred

**Author's Note:**

> This was supposed to be posted on Christmas day, but things conspired against me. Based on a prompt from peaceful_fury - Explosions in the lab on Christmas day
> 
> Written for wishlist 2012

It was really no surprise that none of the Avengers were going anywhere for the holidays - none of them had somewhere better to be.

Steve had insisted that they get a tree and decorate it. The enthusiasm that the suggestion was met with surprised him a little, but he’d certainly taken advantage of it. The communal living room was ablaze with lights and color. 

He seemed to be the only one who felt a religious connection to the holiday itself, but the overarching concepts - of family, of home - that were linked to Christmas in his mind seemed to resonate with everyone else. There were lots of little whispers in the corners about presents, and Clint and Phil had declared that they were cooking dinner. Clint’s exact words were, “Show up hungry at three. Or else.”

Steve suspected that he and Phil might have been the only Avengers with happy memories of the holidays, which broke Steve’s heart. So he did his best to try and build some new ones with each member of the team.

He’d enjoyed mulled wine with Natasha as they hung the lights that outlined the large windows. He’d spent several afternoons trying to explain the concept of the holiday to Thor as they shopped for the tree and the decorations. He’d helped Clint write up the menu for the day itself and gone to the grocery store with him to help him carry everything home. He and Phil had conspired on a joint gift for Clint - a large case to hold his different bows, one that they hoped would say permanence to him - that they thought was perfect for him.

But Bruce and Tony - well, both of them had made themselves pretty scarce. They seemed to spend all of their time down in the lab, and while Steve was glad that they had each other, he couldn’t think of a way to pull them into the team that was coalescing in the rest of the tower. He was concerned about they way that they were isolating themselves - an isolation that had gotten worse when Tony and Pepper had had what seemed to be an amicable break up.

He’d tried going down to the lab several times to try and invite them to participate, but while they’d both been friendly and good-natured, the invitations had all been turned down. After a while he’d stopped asking, though he did try to take food down to them at least once a day.

On Christmas eve, he’d taken them down a meal and one more invitation to come watch Christmas movies with everyone else, but they’d barely acknowledged him as they focused all of their attention on a large... something in the middle of the lab. Finally he just left the tray on one of the workbenches and trusted that Jarvis would remind them that it was there eventually.

Christmas morning dawned clear and bright, and Steve lay in bed for a few minutes extra, smiling over the sounds of other people waking up and moving around. Usually Phil was the first one up, and by now he’d probably discovered the stockings that Steve had hung along the wall. They were full of silly little things, but he had fond memories of the stockings his mother had given him, and he hoped to give everyone else those same feelings.

When he’d decided that he’d lingered long enough, he got up and pulled on his robe and slippers before making his way to the living area. As he’d thought, most of the team was already there, opening the little dollar store toys and eating their oranges. But there was still no sign of Tony or Bruce. Steve locked down the little feeling of disappointment that that engendered and went to join everyone else.

There were a sizeable number of colorfully wrapped presents under the tree, but Steve thought that he owed it to Bruce and Tony to make one more try to get them up here before they started opening gifts. “Jarvis,” he said. “Can you patch me into the lab?”

“There is no need, Captain Rogers,” Jarvis replied, which got everyone’s attention. “Mr. Stark and Dr. Banner are on their way up to you now.”

A few seconds later, the elevator dinged and Steve stood up, ready to say... something that would get Tony and Bruce to join in. He wasn’t sure what, but he thought he could come up with something good. He put aside the fact that he’d been failing at that for weeks now.

Tony and Bruce tumbled out of the elevator, followed by a, well, Steve _thought_ it might be a robot? Maybe? It appeared to have far too many arms, and no head, but it was moving under its own power, and that seemed to make it qualify as robotic.

Bruce looked around, apparently startled to see everyone gathered in the living room. “Um, Tony? I don’t think it’s the middle of the night,” he said.

“Apparently not,” Tony said, and he sounded a little embarrassed and disappointed. “Oh, well, it doesn’t look like presents have been opened yet, so we can still give Steve his gift!”

“What?” Steve said. “I mean, thank you, but what do you mean?”

“This is our present,” Tony said, gesturing at the robot-thing. “We know you’ve been trying to make this a happy holiday for everyone, and we thought that we’d add our part.”

Steve stood there blinking for a long moment. “Okay,” he said. “What is it supposed to do?”

“Well, I’m sure you’ve seen that disgusting stuff that they sell that pretends to be eggnog?” Tony asked.

“Yes,” Steve said. “I’d planned to ignore it and make some real stuff later. What does that have to do with the robot?”

“Well, now you don’t have to!” Tony gestured wildly at the robot, and it started to shake, disturbing sounds coming from its body. “It makes it for you! And when you do press this button, it sings, too!” With that, Bruce pushed a mostly hidden button on the side of the robot, and what sounded like Bing Crosby singing “White Christmas” started playing.

“We’re sorry that we’ve been down in the lab,” Bruce said to Steve. His voice was serious, but he looked bleary, like he hadn’t slept in days. “We had to find the perfect recipe for the eggnog, and then a way to keep the ingredients at the right temperature until we wanted it turned on.”

The robot was shaking even harder, and Bruce shot a concerned glance at it, but Tony didn’t seem to notice. Instead, he said, “We knew that this was probably going to be hard for you. We thought we’d try to do something nice.”

“I appreciate it,” Steve said, but he couldn’t help noticing that there was a faint whine coming from the inside of the robot. He started to back away slowly, a little nervous. “I just wanted everyone to have a good - “

Bing cut off with a high-pitched squeal that had everyone clapping their hands over their ears. The robot was now shaking so hard that it was practically jumping in place, and even Tony was looking at it with concern. “Um,” he said, looking at Bruce, but before either of them could do anything, there was a loud _bang_.

And suddenly everything around the robot in a ten-foot radius was covered in what looked like eggnog. Unfortunately, this included the whole team. 

Tony and Bruce were exchanging panicked looks, and Steve didn’t want them running back to the lab to hide. So instead, he wiped some of the eggnog off his face with a finger and stuck it in his mouth. “Hey, not bad,” he said with a grin. “And you’re right, this is much better than making it myself.”

There was a moment of stunned silence, and then everyone - including Bruce and Tony, Steve was relieved to notice - started laughing. 

“How about this,” Steve said with a grin once everyone was breathing normally again. “Let’s all get this mess cleaned up, and then we can open presents while we watch bad Christmas movies?”

Tony looked crestfallen for a moment. “Uh, that _was_ your present,” he said, and the disappointment was clear in his voice.

“No, Tony,” Steve said. “My present is all of you, here, together. Anything else is just gravy. Besides, haven’t you ever heard ‘It’s the thought that counts’?”

“Well, maybe we should have put a bit more thought into it,” Bruce said, but he was smiling, so Steve was going to count that as a win.


End file.
